


The Comfort Of Stones

by Sweet_Voice_of_Yala



Category: Rift World Series - Ephemeral Rift
Genre: Arkham Sanitarium, Ephemeral Rift, Escape, Friendship, Gen, Rift World - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-30 17:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20100676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweet_Voice_of_Yala/pseuds/Sweet_Voice_of_Yala
Summary: Friends may be found in the strangest places.





	The Comfort Of Stones

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Brother - a Medicine Man / Shaman / Spiritual Healer ASMR improv performance / role play](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/503938) by Ephemeral Rift. 

> This is a fanfic for the Rift World Universe, created by YouTuber Ephemeral Rift (who is not only an ASMRtist but also an amazing storyteller) [EphemeralRift.com](https://ephemeralrift.com/)  
The OC and the story are mine, everything else belongs to him.
> 
> Many thanks to the ever patient and helpful koboldblue for answering a million questions about English (which isn't my first language, so please be gentle with me.)  
All the remaining mistakes are mine, corrections are very welcome.
> 
> Also, I'm new here, please let me know if I made a mistake (category, warnings etc). Thanks :)

I think I’m going crazy, I must be… the stone is warm.

At first I thought it was just the warmth of my skin, as I wear it on a leather string around my neck but it doesn't cool down when I take it off.  
Moreover, when I put it into the water of the stream I have been following for some time now, it comes out wet but never cold.

He said his people believe the blood of their ancestors was absorbed into the stone, maybe…  
But no, that’s not possible.

I came across him when I escaped from the sanitarium.  
Running away was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. I’m hardly able to survive out of town but I had to get away, I had to!  
Away from the experiments, the willfully ignorant patients and the cold, the goddamned cold!  
Far away from those who call me “friend” and “favorite patient” or emphasize how it is “such an honor” to meet me.  
People like Corvus and his sweet poison words.  
Oh, he will go a long way to make us feel better but it isn’t just out of kindness. There is something he wants from us, apart from that peculiar harvest.  
Or the Professor who calls me his prized guest and his friend but refers to me as a subject when he forgets himself.  
To him we are nothing but useful tools; “favorite patient”, my ass!  
And not to forget nurse Margaret, who is very caring, yes, but only as long as I obey. In the end we’re just a possession to her, like a pet or some kind of living toy.

It is true, he also called me friend. And he said that it was an honor to meet me.  
But _his_ kindness was genuine, I could see it in the way he treated me.  
And of course, there is his gift.

The stone is warm.  
I clutch it at night.  
It brings back memories of the few happy moments in that blasted hellhole:  
The Green Mans clumsy attempts to cheer me up right after a particularly gruesome experiment, looking at the stars with Charlie Carl,  
an hours-long discussion with Dr. Walker about the undead, some of the card games with 72. 

A few days ago I fell down a slope. Luckily I didn’t break anything, I just grazed my arm.  
But I found a small metal plate about half the size of a thumbnail stuck in my flesh. I suppose it’s that chip they need to track me down.  
I tore it out. And lost a lot of blood in the process.  
The chip is buried under a tree now. Unless there's another one of these buggers, no one will find me.

I ate my last food three days ago and emptied the water bottle this morning.  
If I don’t find anything soon, I will die of starvation or thirst.  
But not of the cold, never of the cold.  
For the stone is warm.


End file.
